EDINBURGH, Scotland, March 10 — Golf tech startup Hosel is aiming to take a swing at a global second-hand club, equipment, and accessory market valued at $3 billion. With a growing trend for golfers seeking “nearly new” golf clubs, Hosel’s platform helps golfers compare, buy and trade pre-owned clubs from trusted sellers in a market dominated by non-specialist behemoth players like eBay and characterised by issues around pricing, quality of product, and counterfeit goods.
As resale becomes increasingly core in retail, and in many cases outstrips the primary market, Hosel plans to modernise golf resale with a modern approach to pricing, authentication, fulfilment, and customer experience. Launching in the UK where there are estimated to be around 5 million golfers, Hosel sees the US and its almost 30 million golfers as its major target market going forward.
Hosel, named after the socket that connects the shaft to the club head, aggregates thousands of pre-owned golf clubs from trusted sellers on a single, searchable site, enabling golfers to compare pricing across sellers, buy with authenticity guaranteed, trade in clubs with confidence, and quickly understand fair market value.
London-based Ascension VC has led a pre-seed £500,000 investment round, with a further institutional round and US expansion planned later this year.
Hosel’s Co-founder and CEO Andrew McGinley previously founded, scaled, and exited care marketplace Care Sourcer, before going on to support and mentor hundreds of founders across the Scottish tech ecosystem as an Entrepreneur in Residence at CodeBase. Co-founder and CTO Charles Harley contributed to app development for Scottish unicorns Skyscanner and FanDuel, before joining FanDuel post acquisition, going on to work alongside McGinley at Care Sourcer.
CEO Andrew McGinley said: “Essentially, Hosel is about bringing trust and price transparency to golf resale, which is seriously lacking as things stand. Second-hand golf shouldn’t feel like the Wild West, and by aggregating trusted sellers Hosel is going to be much better for golfers and the overall long-term health of the game.”
CEO McGinley added: “Golf is an amazing game, but one of the greatest barriers is cost. Whether you’re building your first bag, upgrading your driver, or trading clubs you no longer use, everyone should be able to access the game at a fair price.”
Toyosi Ogedengbe, Principal, Ascension, said: “Hosel sits at the intersection of two powerful trends: the structural growth of golf participation and the mainstream shift towards recommerce. As avid golfers who experienced the status quo – fragmented sellers, price opacity and a poor customer experience – Andrew and Charles decided to build the infrastructure required to capitalise on this £2 billion plus market opportunity. We’re excited to back them early in what we believe is the Vinted for golf.”
